This invention relates to a system for connecting a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) and a station protection unit that together comprise a carrier field unit, the system enabling a field technician to replace the RTU quickly and efficiently.
A station protection unit, also known as a customer terminal unit because it is the point at which service to a particular telecommunications customer or customers terminates, generally comprises either four or eight station protection modules. Present practice is for an RTU, which is the point of interface between a customer location and a telecommunications system, to be connected to the station protection modules by means of a wiring harness wherein wires from the RTU are connected by hand to each of the station protection modules. The process of connecting the wiring harness to the station protection modules is time consuming and error-prone.
Presently, when a field technician is required to replace an RTU, the technician must remove all of the wiring from the station protection modules in the station protection unit. Then, after removing the old RTU, the field technician must install a new RTU by connecting wires running from the new RTU to each of the station protection modules in the station protection unit. In addition to connecting the wires running from the new RTU, which can take thirty minutes or more, the field technician must test the new connections. Testing the new connections may require traveling to up to eight separate customer locations that may be separated by a distance measured in miles. If a connection is not properly established, then the field technician must repeat this time-consuming process.
Accordingly, a system that enables a field technician to replace an RTU in less than a minute, without having to test any of the connections to the RTU, would present significant advantages over present practice. In particular, the present invention offers the advantage of saving significant amounts of a field technician's time, and consequently also allows telecommunications providers to save significant amounts of repair and maintenance costs.